3 ms·
This isn't just an oral formulation of tirzepatide, right? The article sort of hints at this but doesn't really come out and say it one way or the other. > El
by loeg 2y ago
This isn't just an oral formulation of tirzepatide, right? The article sort of hints at this but doesn't really come out and say it one way or the other.
> Eli Lilly’s pill works in a similar way to Wegovy, Ozempic, and Novo Nordisk’s diabetes pill Rybelsus, targeting a gut hormone called GLP-1 to suppress a person’s appetite and regulate blood sugar.
(These three are all just different names for Semaglutide.)
> But unlike those three medications, Eli Lilly’s pill is not a peptide medication.
> ...
> But so-called small molecule pills [orforglipron] will at least be easier for Eli Lilly to manufacture than injections.
- _ihaque 2y agoNo, it's not a reformulation of tirzepatide. Orforglipron is a small molecule with a molecular mass of 883 g/mol and tirzepatide is a large molecule peptide six tims larger, with a molecular mass of 4813 g/mol. The Wikipedia pages are decent -- the picture makes it fairly obvious how much smaller orforglipron is than tirzepatide even if you don't know how to read chemical structures; just count atoms! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orforglipron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orforglipron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirzepatide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirzepatide
- tpm 2y ago> This isn't just an oral formulation of tirzepatide, right? No, the molecule (per wikipedia) is significantly smaller.
- philipkglass 2y agoIt does say it in those two later sentences you quoted: But unlike those three medications, Eli Lilly’s pill is not a peptide medication. But so-called small molecule pills [orforglipron] will at least be easier for Eli Lilly to manufacture than injections. In medicinal chemistry parlance, a "small molecule drug" normally means one that can be synthesized by flasks-and-beakers organic chemistry of the sort one learns in an organic synthesis class. (And it has a lower molecular weight than peptide or biologic drugs, hence the name.) Peptide drugs are synthesized by a specialized kind of organic chemistry that mimics aspects of protein synthesis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peptide_synthesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peptide_synthesis The industrially relevant thing is that small molecule drugs typically cost less to produce, once the molecule goes into full scale production. Lower cost is an advantage for the first manufacturer while the drug is under patent and it's an advantage for buyers once the drug's patent exclusivity expires.
- loeg 2y agoPerhaps I should have been explicit that I meant "say it explicitly," though I thought it was pretty clear.